Innholdsfortegnelse for August/September 2022 i Salt Water Sportsman

I was fishing in a kayak under a bridge at night in late October a few years back when a local party boat pulled up to the next piling over. It was a few days after the full moon, and the tide was ripping hard enough over the sandbars to create standing waves between the stanchions. There were striped bass stacked up in the light line, and I’d been catching them on bucktails through the end of the incoming current. The party boat wanted in on the bite. The night boats out of Captree in the fall can attract a rough crowd. I could tell what was coming by the looks the guys lining the rails were throwing in my direction, the occasional bursts of laughter, and the general disgruntlement…

Capt. Tyler Kapela and anglers Dylan and Nils Diaz were netting some pass crabs for bait when they were interrupted by a commotion. “I heard a big splash behind us,” says Kapela, a guide in Tampa Bay, Florida. “Someone in another boat yelled over to us that it was a tarpon. I had a crab bait ready to cast, so I flipped it toward the fish’s boil.” The tarpon hit only 40 feet from Kapela’s 24-foot skiff, but the water was deep and none of the anglers could see the fish. Dylan settled in to fight the big tarpon in open water after first surviving a couple of close calls with structure. “Suddenly, a big pilot boat came chugging along and went right over the line,” Kapela says. “We got…

Natural Baits WHITE MARLIN OR SAILFISH A small ballyhoo with a 5/0 inline circle hook, rigged to 80-pound fluorocarbon leader and fished on a 20-pound outfit. BLUE MARLIN A single-hooked, splashing Spanish mackerel, rigged on 250-pound fluorocarbon leader. The bait pairs well with a Penn International 50-pound outfit. Live Baits SAILFISH A live goggle-eye with a 5/0 inline circle hook, rigged to 40-pound fluorocarbon leader and fished on 20-pound-class spin gear. Perfect to probe for followers by blind-casting behind a hooked sailfish. Pitching Plugs MAHI AND TUNA Topwater chuggers, such as Rapala’s X-Rap Magnum Xplode 130, matched to 60-pound fluorocarbon leader and 30-pound braided main line. Great for pitching into surface-feeding fish. WAHOO AND KING MACKEREL Subsurface darters rigged to 60-pound fluorocarbon leader and fished on a 7500-size spinner with…

While drifting over an expansive sand flat off the coast of California recently, all three anglers on my boat hooked up simultaneously with big white sea bass. Pandemonium ensued, and no one had time to run to the chart plotter to create a waypoint so that we might return to the fish later. But I was wearing a new Quatix 7x Solar Edition smartwatch, which allowed me to mark the spot as I battled the fish. The idea of using a smartwatch to catch more fish might sound farfetched. Smartwatches from brands like Apple, Carbinox, Coros, Polar and Tag Heuer can perform an amazing number of functions, but most of these wristworn computers fail to focus on the marine market. Only one company—Garmin—has developed smartwatches With suggested retail ranging from…

WE WERE DRIFTING DEEP BAITS FOR BLACKFIN TUNA OVER ISLAMORADA’S 409 HUMP, ALL EYES FOCUSED ON OUR RODS—EXCEPT FOR NATHAN QUINN’S. FORTUNATELY FOR US, HE SPOTTED A BIG MAHI SWIMMING PAST THE SIDE OF THE BOAT THE REST OF US WEREN’T PAYING ATTENTION TO. He pointed in the direction of the migrating fish, and I followed up by grabbing a 20-pound spinning outfit and pitching a ballyhoo far up-current. A few moments later, a large bull mahi took to the air without so much as bouncing the rod tip. It had consumed the ballyhoo while swimming back to our boat. I got tight to the fish and spent the next 30 or so minutes bringing the 38-pounder to gaff. September had once again lived up to its reputation as a…

Great fishing for white seabass off Southern California’s coast in recent years seemed to confirm the positive impact of an intense stocking program underway since the early 1980s. But, as the saying goes, something didn’t compute. California’s Ocean Resources Enhancement and Hatchery Program focuses on white seabass because of their importance to recreational fishing and depressed populations. The Hubbs-SeaWorld Research Institute hatchery has stocked 2.5 million juvenile seabass through the program, all of which were implanted with coded wire tags, tiny pieces of etched metal implanted in the cheek muscles of the fish and found using a metal detector. However, even as fishing improved, scientists found that just a tiny percentage of caught fish were confirmed to be carrying the tags. So, where were all these seabass coming from? The…

Award-winning taxidermist Bill Dobbelaer has mounted thousands of trophy saltwater gamefish over the years, so he’s interacted with many sport-fishing captains, mates and boat owners. A passionate advocate for recreational fishing, Dobbelaer wanted to recruit this network to the cause of science. Research data on saltwater gamefish has never been more important, but he felt there weren’t enough ways for the angling community to participate. In 2015, he decided to do something about the problem, launching Gray FishTag Research, a grassroots nonprofit that distributes free tagging tools and tags to anglers. The group trains fishermen how to use these tools and tracks the information they collect through an open-source database available to marine scientists, research institutions and management agencies at no charge. Most of the tags GFR distributes are streamer…

Your articles are toothless, superficial, and do not explain the main issues in fishing management,” wrote a reader from Louisiana. “You are a part of the team that is brainwashing us with misleading, shallow and superficial articles that avoid exposing major issues.” I took a deep breath. At least he had confronted me directly, not via some Twitter handle. You get it from all sides, I guess. I have been accused by commercial interests of being way too biased toward the recreational fishing community. Recreational fishing butters my bread. I admit it. But when I have taken stands for the resource, recreational interests have accused me of not being supportive enough. I guess I must be somewhere in the middle. After a number of email exchanges like this, my pen…

Staying Power X2Power has debuted four deep-cycle lithium marine batteries. Each features lithium-iron-phosphate (LiFePo4) chemistry and X2Power’s battery management system to protect against overcharging, as well as over-discharging. New models produce 12 volts in 20-, 50-, 80- and 100-amp-hour versions, and range in weight from 5.7 to 28.2 pounds. All are backed by a five-year warranty. From $229.99 to $899.99; x2powerbattery.com Charge Ahead The Xplore battery charger from Xantrex charges all types of marine batteries, including flooded cell, AGM, gel and lithium, at the same time. It provides 12 volts with output amps selectable between 5 and 40, and can handle up to six battery banks at once. NMEA 2000 connectivity lets you use an MFD for configuration and monitoring. The 13-pound unit measures 16.26 inches tall by 12.34 inches…

TEST CONDITIONS WEATHER Cloudy LOCATION Stuart, Florida WIND 20 to 25 mph SEA STATE 3 to 4 feet TEST LOAD Two crew, 400 gallons of fuel FOUNDED IN 2018, CAYMAS BOATS MIGHT SEEM LIKE A NEWCOMER TO THE BOAT BUSINESS. NOT EVEN CLOSE. WITH MARINE-INDUSTRY VETERAN EARL BENTZ AT THE HELM, CAYMAS IS IN-FUSED WITH A LEGACY OF BOATBUILDING SUCCESS. In his 50-year career, Bentzhas played major roles in well known brands such as Hydra-Sports, Triton Boats and now Caymas. To say he knows boatbuilding is a dramatic understatement. We had the chance to test the new Caymas 401 Center Console in Stuart, Florida, on a wind-blown, mostly overcast day, and this fishing machine did not disappoint. With a hull designed by Michael Peters and his team of high-tech engineers,…

Anglers might soon have a better understanding of Georgia redfish migrations, as the Georgia Department of Natural Resources Coastal Resources Division ramps up its acoustic tagging in different parts of the Peach State. The autonomous telemetry equipment used by the Coastal Resources Division is an ambitious attempt to track the movements of different-age redfish without having to recapture them. “We’ve always had interest from anglers on migrations, and redfish are a hot topic,” says Jared Flowers, unit leader of research and surveys at the Coastal Resources Division. “Our cooperative angler tagging programs, with conventional tags, aren’t going anywhere, but we really started acoustic tagging efforts in early 2020.” Georgia’s current surveys still have gaps in knowledge related to fishing mortality, movement and habitat, so acoustic tagging set out to receive…

Glenn Kaplan, from Oklahoma, landed this memorable roosterfish on fly tackle after an hour’s fight off Cabo San Lucas, Mexico. His setup included a mullet-imitation fly, 11-weight Beulah fly rod and Cheeky reel. “For me, this was a fish of a lifetime, and I was able to release it successfully and watch it swim away,” Kaplan says. YOUR CATCH To send in your catch photo, email us at catches@saltwatersportsman.com. Got a piece of good news to share? Want to gripe? Like to see your thoughts on the pages of Salt Water Sportsman? Send your letters, manuscripts and any relevant comments to editor@saltwatersportsman.com or via U.S. mail: SWS Editor, 555 Winderley Place, Suite 300, Maitland, FL 32751. Unsolicited manuscripts are welcomed but will not be acknowledged or returned unless accompanied by an…

Pathfinder 2400 TRS Pathfinder Boats’ redesigned 2400 TRS offers a deeper cockpit for enhanced safety, a 6-inch wider beam for greater stability, and more family-oriented features. The hull on this bay boat was patterned after its larger sistership—the 2600 TRS—with a single step and 15 degrees of deadrise at the transom. Fourteen inches of draft at rest optimizes shallow-water capabilities, but the changes to the hull shape also enhance the 2400 TRS’ ability to handle big water. Max power is a Yamaha F300 outboard. Angling amenities include elevated fore and aft casting decks and undergunwale rod storage for sticks up to 9 feet in length. A standard 38-gallon livewell resides under the aft casting deck. An insulated 31-gallon fish box is also standard. The forward console features an 80-quart Engel…

I DO NOT LIKE THE COLD. I tend to get grumpy when it’s cold. OK, grumpier. When it is cold, my hands start to ache, my ears burn, and I get that uncomfortable shiver down my back. I become lethargic and don’t want to move around more than necessary. None of that motivates me to fish; mostly, it prompts me to find some place warmer. But here’s the thing: A lot of fish don’t like the cold either, and they too seek out warmer waters when the temperatures start to drop. Interestingly, two Gulf of Mexico game-fish species maintain similar patterns for finding warmer waters when the Gulf flats start to chill. Both speckled seatrout and snook employ similar in-shore migrations when the water starts to cool. And in regions…

Santa Barbara Island isn’t much of an island. Anglers call it “the Rock.” Yet the waters run deep around this smallest of the Channel Islands, and that’s exactly where we headed one morning aboard my 21½-footer, Split Decision, tanked up with live squid in pursuit of big California yellowtail. As my two sons, Brandon and Josh, and I reached the east side of the mist-shrouded island, we saw what we were after on the fish finder: the distinctive sonar marks of yellowtails near the ocean floor 150 feet below. With the current running to the north, we set the anchor a few hundred yards off the island, pinned live squid to our hooks, and sent them to the bottom with 10-ounce sinkers. Almost immediately, Josh hooked up, then Brandon and…

TEST CONDITIONS WEATHER Heavy overcast LOCATION San Diego, WIND Less than 5 mph, southeasterly SEA STATE 1- to 2-foot waves TEST LOAD Two adults, 53 gallons of fuel IF YOU’RE PRIMARILY AN INSHORE ANGLER BUT WANT THE OPTION TO SHOOT OFF-SHORE AND CHASE PELAGICS OR BOTTOMFISH WHEN WEATHER PERMITS, ROBALO’S BIG, BEEFY 266 CAYMAN IS A BOAT THAT DESERVES A SPOT NEAR THE TOP OF YOUR SHORT LIST. AT 26.5 FEET LENGTH OVERALL, THIS IS THE LARGEST CAYMAN MODEL TO DATE. This is a brawny bay boat, with abundant space for fishing and a deck that remains stable, even with two or three healthy anglers on one side of the boat. A deep midcockpit nestles between its fore and aft casting platforms. Elevated forward pods serve as steps to the…